Post by nickb123 on Jul 1, 2009 17:48:44 GMT -5
Hi guys. New poster. I've been thinking a lot about the main themes this year and ended up writing a short novel which, in the midst of ramblings, actually has some cool elements. Therefore, I thought I'd share, so here's an epic Buffy Season 8 theory. First some quotes, and then some analysis!
The Inner Darkness
BUFFY: No, no, I can't go outside, I'm afraid of the dark.
XANDER: Buffy, you are the dark.
BUFFY: That's what I meant.
BUFFY: (Upon seeing the demon in her dream) I know you...
(The Long Way Home, Part 2)
BUFFY: I've been having repeats of the same bad episode every night this week. There's this... THING chasing me, and no matter how hard I run, it always ends up scoring the pounce. But right before it swallows me whole, the big smelly looks me right in the eyes and says, “the queen is dead.”
DEMON: Long live the queen.
(No Future For You, Part 1)
CALEB: It's the one lesson you always forget, girl... you can't kill what's inside you.
(Always Darkest)
Her Closest Armor
BUFFY: What happens to me here?
ROBIN: Betrayal. The closest, the most unexpected.
BUFFY: Who?
(Anywhere But Here)
TWILIGHT: The trick is to strip her of her greatest armor... her moral certainty. However hapless she may be about her personal life, this girl has always firmly believed she was on the side of right. And if there's one thing I've learned about the Slayer...
(A Beautiful Sunset)
Misc.
TWILIGHT: The chosen one. Always in pain... and always complaining. Just like a girl. I know that move, Slayer. Let me show you some of mine.
(A Beautiful Sunset)
DARK WILLOW: Your schemes are ingenious. Keeping your force mobile, spreading the beloved infection throughout Noram... you gnaw at the root of your world. But there is nothing a Slayer cannot overcome.
HARTH: Then why call for another?
DARK WILLOW: Vampires gain strength from each other. Slayers, ultimately, don't.
(Time of Your Life, Part 2)
Analysis
It appears that, this season, Buffy's struggle is with the darkness within her (ok so not that much different). This could be the darkness inherent to Slayers, or the darkness Buffy feels as an individual she has; either as a leader with absolute power corrupting, or as the bringer of calamity by unleashing the Slayers upon the world. Buffy made hundreds of new Slayers, not all of them good. The dark side to being the Slayer is still a big issue with Buffy, one she cannot kill as Caleb puts it. In her dreams, Buffy is said to BE the darkness, and even sees the personification of the darkness and recognizes it. In her second recurring dream, the juxtaposition of “the queen is dead” and “long live the queen” seem to suggest the opposing black and white forces of magic and of being the Slayer – one which Twilight as a seemingly neutral party wishes to end. The major comment from Anywhere But Here about Buffy being betrayed can be interpreted interestingly in light of the above: the “closest and most unexpected” betrayal could be from Buffy herself (a more indirect or metaphorical betrayal of all Buffy has stood for). This realization would crush Buffy, and while most fans are looking at who the mystery betrayer is (as per Whedon's following line “Who?” that could be there to throw us off the scent), the reality seems that the betrayal is nothing more than Buffy selling out her “moral certainty” as Twilight called it. This could be through siding with his belief that the world cannot contain so many Slayers (an analogy of containing “so much female power”), or by believing that magic itself should be erased (an analogy for giving up the good versus evil moral code and just removing both sides entirely – which would result with nothing in the world, just a void).
Dark Willow's comment that Slayers ultimately do not find strength from one another also links in well with Buffy's feelings about connection. Twilight believes the world cannot contain so many Slayers, and Buffy's moral certainty that empowering all these women is the right thing is beginning to break down. The Slayer connection seems to be crumbling, the whole notion of “the chain”, where you feel your moral duty and react rather than ignore, is being detached from their minds. An interesting, more out there, theory could be that Twilight is in actuality connected to the Slayers (explaining the “I know that move” comment in the sense of sharing Slayer memories). Twilight could be the leading example of trying to overcome the Slayer fight and call by removing the duty altogether. This is not the right way: there's always going to be good and evil, removing it entirely destroys everything that's good and everything that's bad – that is why Twilight is ultimately not right morally, despite that from a fan perspective his arguments do somewhat conform to the Scooby gang's ideology. Such a gray area is definitely not lost on Buffy, who is beginning to agree with his beliefs, which will slowly in her betraying everything she holds dear – her achievement of empowering the Slayers and the fight against evil.
The key question with this theory is: why did Dark Willow lure Buffy to the future so that she could die at her hands? Willow spun many lies, telling Harth that his world would only come to be if Buffy came to it, influencing her actions when she returned to her own time. At the same time, she told Fray that Buffy “ocking” the future would result in its failure to materialize. It seems that the former was the truth, as despite Buffy seeing Fray's world, it remained seemingly unchanged after her departure. So, Willow's actions appear to have caused Fray's world to exist, or at least had no effect on the future and Buffy's fate that would have been anyway. Thus, Willow will inevitably end up in the same position. Wanting Buffy to kill her could be for a sentimental reason, but it seems more likely that the action was to prepare Buffy in some way for her present. It could put her on the path of defying her beliefs by trying to destroy magic, seeing the negative effects it has once again had on her best friend. Or, it could serve to help Buffy in her realization of her own betrayal somehow. What seems clear is that Fray's future may still occur, meaning magic will be sealed from the world. While this could turn out in the end to be construed as a victory (all the Slayers surviving, but losing their Slayer powers while magic and demons vamos – on the surface not a bad conclusion), the truth is that such an ending does not seem to fit in with the Buffyverse or indeed any real-world paradigm as a success. What Joss Whedon has always tried to convey I think is that there is no fix. Yes the Hellmouth got ended, but Joss was quick to add that there's another one in Cleveland. Angel saw it countless times: there's no end battle that finishes it all off, it's all about fighting because the alternative is a loss of what makes us human. Cutting out magic, demons et al is not the way, and the old Buffy would know this. So, the conclusion here is that it looks like magic will end up being sealed unless Fray's world is now alternate and Willow's influence did change things. While you might interpret the sealing of magic to work out better than we've so far been led to believe, however, the point is that such an event will not be a good thing period. The sealing of magic will be devastating to the Scooby gang and the world. Buffy needs to realize this before she signs on to Twilight's twisted view. Before it is too late (if indeed it's not already).
The Inner Darkness
BUFFY: No, no, I can't go outside, I'm afraid of the dark.
XANDER: Buffy, you are the dark.
BUFFY: That's what I meant.
BUFFY: (Upon seeing the demon in her dream) I know you...
(The Long Way Home, Part 2)
BUFFY: I've been having repeats of the same bad episode every night this week. There's this... THING chasing me, and no matter how hard I run, it always ends up scoring the pounce. But right before it swallows me whole, the big smelly looks me right in the eyes and says, “the queen is dead.”
DEMON: Long live the queen.
(No Future For You, Part 1)
CALEB: It's the one lesson you always forget, girl... you can't kill what's inside you.
(Always Darkest)
Her Closest Armor
BUFFY: What happens to me here?
ROBIN: Betrayal. The closest, the most unexpected.
BUFFY: Who?
(Anywhere But Here)
TWILIGHT: The trick is to strip her of her greatest armor... her moral certainty. However hapless she may be about her personal life, this girl has always firmly believed she was on the side of right. And if there's one thing I've learned about the Slayer...
(A Beautiful Sunset)
Misc.
TWILIGHT: The chosen one. Always in pain... and always complaining. Just like a girl. I know that move, Slayer. Let me show you some of mine.
(A Beautiful Sunset)
DARK WILLOW: Your schemes are ingenious. Keeping your force mobile, spreading the beloved infection throughout Noram... you gnaw at the root of your world. But there is nothing a Slayer cannot overcome.
HARTH: Then why call for another?
DARK WILLOW: Vampires gain strength from each other. Slayers, ultimately, don't.
(Time of Your Life, Part 2)
Analysis
It appears that, this season, Buffy's struggle is with the darkness within her (ok so not that much different). This could be the darkness inherent to Slayers, or the darkness Buffy feels as an individual she has; either as a leader with absolute power corrupting, or as the bringer of calamity by unleashing the Slayers upon the world. Buffy made hundreds of new Slayers, not all of them good. The dark side to being the Slayer is still a big issue with Buffy, one she cannot kill as Caleb puts it. In her dreams, Buffy is said to BE the darkness, and even sees the personification of the darkness and recognizes it. In her second recurring dream, the juxtaposition of “the queen is dead” and “long live the queen” seem to suggest the opposing black and white forces of magic and of being the Slayer – one which Twilight as a seemingly neutral party wishes to end. The major comment from Anywhere But Here about Buffy being betrayed can be interpreted interestingly in light of the above: the “closest and most unexpected” betrayal could be from Buffy herself (a more indirect or metaphorical betrayal of all Buffy has stood for). This realization would crush Buffy, and while most fans are looking at who the mystery betrayer is (as per Whedon's following line “Who?” that could be there to throw us off the scent), the reality seems that the betrayal is nothing more than Buffy selling out her “moral certainty” as Twilight called it. This could be through siding with his belief that the world cannot contain so many Slayers (an analogy of containing “so much female power”), or by believing that magic itself should be erased (an analogy for giving up the good versus evil moral code and just removing both sides entirely – which would result with nothing in the world, just a void).
Dark Willow's comment that Slayers ultimately do not find strength from one another also links in well with Buffy's feelings about connection. Twilight believes the world cannot contain so many Slayers, and Buffy's moral certainty that empowering all these women is the right thing is beginning to break down. The Slayer connection seems to be crumbling, the whole notion of “the chain”, where you feel your moral duty and react rather than ignore, is being detached from their minds. An interesting, more out there, theory could be that Twilight is in actuality connected to the Slayers (explaining the “I know that move” comment in the sense of sharing Slayer memories). Twilight could be the leading example of trying to overcome the Slayer fight and call by removing the duty altogether. This is not the right way: there's always going to be good and evil, removing it entirely destroys everything that's good and everything that's bad – that is why Twilight is ultimately not right morally, despite that from a fan perspective his arguments do somewhat conform to the Scooby gang's ideology. Such a gray area is definitely not lost on Buffy, who is beginning to agree with his beliefs, which will slowly in her betraying everything she holds dear – her achievement of empowering the Slayers and the fight against evil.
The key question with this theory is: why did Dark Willow lure Buffy to the future so that she could die at her hands? Willow spun many lies, telling Harth that his world would only come to be if Buffy came to it, influencing her actions when she returned to her own time. At the same time, she told Fray that Buffy “ocking” the future would result in its failure to materialize. It seems that the former was the truth, as despite Buffy seeing Fray's world, it remained seemingly unchanged after her departure. So, Willow's actions appear to have caused Fray's world to exist, or at least had no effect on the future and Buffy's fate that would have been anyway. Thus, Willow will inevitably end up in the same position. Wanting Buffy to kill her could be for a sentimental reason, but it seems more likely that the action was to prepare Buffy in some way for her present. It could put her on the path of defying her beliefs by trying to destroy magic, seeing the negative effects it has once again had on her best friend. Or, it could serve to help Buffy in her realization of her own betrayal somehow. What seems clear is that Fray's future may still occur, meaning magic will be sealed from the world. While this could turn out in the end to be construed as a victory (all the Slayers surviving, but losing their Slayer powers while magic and demons vamos – on the surface not a bad conclusion), the truth is that such an ending does not seem to fit in with the Buffyverse or indeed any real-world paradigm as a success. What Joss Whedon has always tried to convey I think is that there is no fix. Yes the Hellmouth got ended, but Joss was quick to add that there's another one in Cleveland. Angel saw it countless times: there's no end battle that finishes it all off, it's all about fighting because the alternative is a loss of what makes us human. Cutting out magic, demons et al is not the way, and the old Buffy would know this. So, the conclusion here is that it looks like magic will end up being sealed unless Fray's world is now alternate and Willow's influence did change things. While you might interpret the sealing of magic to work out better than we've so far been led to believe, however, the point is that such an event will not be a good thing period. The sealing of magic will be devastating to the Scooby gang and the world. Buffy needs to realize this before she signs on to Twilight's twisted view. Before it is too late (if indeed it's not already).
) "you are at war with the human race"
